ST and Single Mode are both AT&T products. Theta used single mode and called it LaserLinque. It is vastly superior to ST but very costly. It was (is?) an $800 option on a Theta transport or DAC plus $250 for the cable. Total cost $1850! My brother and I both have Theta front ends and he has the single mode hook up while I'm using Tara Decade balanced digital cables. We really can't do an empirical comparison as he has a Data II transport and a Gen IIIa Dac, while my rig is a Data Basic transport and a Gen Va balanced DAC. We have looked inside his stuff and the single mode units are little interface boxes that Theta has painted over. I'd sure like to know the source of the interface is as I'm sure they could be obtained for much less than Theta charges and my circuit boards are set up for them. 10 minutes with a soldering iron and... If you enter "single mode" on ebay, all sorts of stuff pops up and I wish I knew if any of it is what I need.
glass fibre optic ST cable Question
i'm finding very little info on the fibre optic cables use between DACs and Transports, eg Wadia and Theta
I'm from an IT background where these things (cable specs) are commonplace. its all vague voodoo here in audio.
isn't there a common cable spec for digital audio fibre?!?
ie is it Multi-mode or single-mode ?! !!
I've seen both mentioned (theta = single v wadia = multi)
I've seen the wadia cable mentioned vaguely a couple of places, and found the StraightWire STX cable a coupel of places (multimode w kevlar braid!!).
Am I naive here to think that any well made polished glass IT grade ST connect cable would work?
thanks
I have seen mention the AES actually gives a better quality signal, which is fine, but I thought i'd listen for myself.
I'm from an IT background where these things (cable specs) are commonplace. its all vague voodoo here in audio.
isn't there a common cable spec for digital audio fibre?!?
ie is it Multi-mode or single-mode ?! !!
I've seen both mentioned (theta = single v wadia = multi)
I've seen the wadia cable mentioned vaguely a couple of places, and found the StraightWire STX cable a coupel of places (multimode w kevlar braid!!).
Am I naive here to think that any well made polished glass IT grade ST connect cable would work?
thanks
I have seen mention the AES actually gives a better quality signal, which is fine, but I thought i'd listen for myself.
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